“Some of my earliest memories are working in my mom’s art studio, making line drawings or carving wood blocks,”

… says David Wright, founder of IDU Creative Services, and in retrospect it seems almost inevitable that by the mid-80s he would be knocking at the doors of graphic design studios in Manhattan, looking for the right spot to start his professional career.

“The scene was very exciting at that time … Macintosh computers were changing everything,” says Wright. “Specifying type, cutting it out with an X-Acto knife and waxing it up to Bainbridge boards — the old ways were fading. Now we could do it all on the new Macs. Even so, it took years before technology caught up with creativity: for example, curved type designs still took hours, cutting out each letter and arranging it on a curved path.”

But, as Logan Pearsall Smith said, “The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves”, and David loved everything about graphic design. With this love and great enthusiasm for emerging technology, he worked as a graphic designer in midtown Manhattan until the late 90s. During that time, David kept busy, helping clients meet their marketing needs, but finally the time came to go out on his own.

The launch of a graphic design firm

Wright founded IDU in 1997 as Identity Design Unlimited, a graphic design firm specializing in brand design and implementation of the brand identity across many areas of communication. His first major account was Texaco, a relationship still going strong more than 10 years later. “Texaco brought me in to work on an internal newsletter, and they loved my work,” says Wright. “For the next three years, they pretty much monopolized my time. It’s been a very rewarding relationship, on both sides.”

More major accounts followed, and today the work that Wright and his team have designed can be seen around the world, ranging in size from the face of a watch to the side of an oil tower, and in style from vivid creative ads to data-rich technical books. You can see samples of their work in the IDU online portfolio here.

A move in the right direction

In September 2001, Wright moved his business 300 miles northwest, from metropolitan New York City to Rochester, New York. “It was a lifestyle change,” says Wright. “I was born in New York City and love it there, but upstate New York is a safe and pleasant place to live. There is great talent up here, too — Kodak and Xerox came out of Rochester, so there is a lot of high-end printing, imaging and designing capability, and with the Rochester Institute of Technology here there are many excellent Rochester graphic designers.”

The move had a positive effect on his business. “Between Internet, email, FTP, overnight shipping and remote conferencing,” Wright continues, “distance is not an issue in client relationships. Even though we are a Rochester graphic design firm, much of our business comes from out of the area. It’s wonderful that the technology I loved so much for graphic design back in the 80s has flowered and become more about relationships — not just between the designer and the design, but also between the designer and the client. The freedom and ease of communication is such a positive thing!”


Biographies

David Wright, president and founder of IDU Creative Services, has been providing creative services for over 20 years. Since his start as a graphic designer in New York City, he has made it his mission to help customers succeed by providing excellent graphic design and creative services. When not at work in his Rochester graphic design studio, David spends a lot of time playing jazz guitar, backpacking and traveling. He has recorded several albums, and recently completed hiking the 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks with his son. He lives outside of Rochester, New York, with his wife and two children.    

Derek Messner, a lead graphic designer at IDU Creative Services, has pursued his passion for design since graduating cum laude from Cazenovia College in 2003. He began working at IDU Creative Services in 2007, after three-and-a-half years at the advertising agency Creative Think Tank. In his free time, Derek enjoys boating and fishing in the Adirondacks and teaching his young daughter how to have fun. He lives in Fairport, New York with his wife and daughter.


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